Saving Seafood

Fish Out of Water: How Capture Affects Sablefish Health, Reflexes, and Survival

July 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sablefish is a high-quality, deepwater fish that supports a valuable Alaska fishery. The fishery has seen dramatic changes in recent years. The highest abundance of young  sablefish in decades arrived with warming temperatures. At the same time, a rapidly-growing pot fishery has emerged alongside traditional hook-and-line fishing in the Gulf of Alaska. A new study shows that, with careful handling, they are able to withstand the stresses of capture on hook-and-line gear—but their.reflexes could be impaired.

In the directed sablefish fishery, commercial fishermen must retain all sablefish (regardless of size) until individual fishing quotas are filled. Then, all remaining catch is returned to sea. To accurately assess the fish stocks to set sustainable catch limits, managers need to estimate how many of the fish caught and released will survive.

A new collaborative study provides information essential for sustainable management of  the sablefish fishery as it evolves and adapts to changing conditions. NOAA Fisheries  Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientists teamed up with a veterinary professor at Oregon State University. They looked at how the stress of capture and time out of water affects the health and reflexes of sablefish, and whether that contributes to delayed mortality. Their findings provide a better understanding of mortality after release from pot fishing. They provide information essential for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to evaluate the implications of proposed “careful release” of small sablefish before fishing quotas are filled.

Read the full release here

New Tribal Research Coordinator for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center

July 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is pleased to announce that we have hired a new Tribal Research Coordinator. Mabel Baldwin-Schaeffer joins the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Communications Program and will be based in Anchorage, AK.

Baldwin-Schaeffer will provide technical support to help enhance existing communications and outreach efforts. She will also foster relationships with subsistence communities and fishing sectors to identify opportunities for scientific collaboration and co-production of research.

“This is a first for us and we couldn’t be more excited to have Mabel working with us. Mabel was very successful in building partnerships with diverse stakeholder groups to co-produce data when she was at the Fisheries, Aquatic Science and Technology Laboratory at Pacific University,” said Robert Foy, Director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “We know our efforts to identify research needs and to more effectively communicate with and design collaborative research projects with Alaska Indigenous communities, Tribal governments, and Alaska Native organizations will benefit greatly from Mabel’s knowledge and experience.”

Baldwin-Schaeffer has both a science background—a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainability Studies and a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Alaska Pacific University—and ties to local communities. Given her direct experience with Alaska Native community cultures, traditions, and ways of communicating, Baldwin-Schaeffer will help to strengthen collaborative relationships with Indigenous communities in Alaska. She will also build staff capacity at Alaska Fisheries Science Center to engage effectively in these efforts. This will help facilitate greater information sharing and opportunities to develop mutually beneficial research priorities.

“I am committed to making positive steps in improving collaboration within and between Alaska’s tribal communities and the institutions and agencies committed to supporting sustainable subsistence-based livelihoods and healthy marine ecosystems,” said Baldwin-Shaeffer.

Read the full release here

As Marine Fish Shift With Climate Change, Scientists Work Across Borders to Ensure Sustainability

June 23, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The cold waters of the eastern Bering Sea support some of the world’s largest and best-managed commercial fisheries. Sustainable management of these fisheries is founded on scientific information provided by Alaska Fisheries Science Center groundfish surveys. New collaborative research is providing information to ensure accurate local estimates of fish abundance in a changing Bering Sea.

Recent rapid, large-scale movements of fish driven by unprecedented warming in the Bering Sea have created a challenge for survey scientists. As fish populations track their preferred conditions, they are shifting northward and westward, likely beyond historical survey boundaries.

“To maintain sustainable fisheries, managers need to understand how climate is influencing how many fish there are and where they are. As fish populations shift in response to changing ocean conditions, we need to adapt and expand our surveys to provide accurate information that represents the entire population,” said Cecilia O’Leary, NOAA Fisheries biologist, Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Read the full release here

Surveys Will Collect Data Crucial for Managing Alaska Fisheries and Monitoring Alaska Marine Ecosystems

May 28, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists from NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and partners have begun another busy survey season off the Alaska coast. Eight surveys are planned in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Chukchi Sea to monitor fish, crab, marine mammals, and marine ecosystems.

“Information collected as part of these surveys and other available data on oceanographic conditions, fisheries, and protected species are integrated to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Alaska marine ecosystems to support sustainable resource management and conservation,” said Robert Foy, science and research director, NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

During surveys, NOAA scientists sort, weigh, and count species collected by longline or trawl. They will also collect specimens and data on various species, as requested by cooperating scientists, agencies, and institutions.

Longline Survey of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska

The annual longline survey is an important data source for producing timely resource assessments for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The 2021 survey continues a 44-year time-series of sablefish and other groundfish species stock trends. The survey is being conducted from May 28 to September 1 aboard the F/V Alaskan Leader, which is a 150-foot freezer longliner.

The 2021 survey begins in Dutch Harbor and makes port calls in Ketchikan, Yakutat, Cordova, and Kodiak. The survey samples the Gulf of Alaska every year, the Bering Sea in odd-numbered years, and the Aleutian Islands in even-numbered years. It surveys at depths from 200 to 1,000 meters. The survey produces catch rates, species compositions, length, and age data for:

  • Sablefish
  • Pacific cod
  • Several rockfish species
  • Shortspine thornyhead
  • Sharks
  • Grenadiers
  • Greenland turbot

The survey also tags and releases a subsample of sablefish, shortspine thornyhead, and Greenland turbot for studying movement behavior and life history. The survey operates on a cost-recovery basis: proceeds from the catch are sold to offset the cost of the vessel charter.

Read the full release here

Meet Lisa Hiruki-Raring: Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center

May 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

What is your key responsibility?  

I translate the research that our scientists do into educational activities or resources. I develop and foster partnerships between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and other agencies and organizations. I believe education helps to strengthen relationships between communities and our scientists. It is a way to give back to the communities where we do research by sharing and exchanging information with students, families, and community members. We focus on all levels of education, from K-12 to undergraduate internships to graduate fellowship opportunities. We also do informal education opportunities to reach the general public.

What is your educational background?

I grew up and went to school  in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science, Scientific Applications, from the University of Alberta. I had initially wanted to study biology or zoology, but somehow got the idea that there weren’t many jobs in biology. So I studied computers instead, with a minor in biology/zoology. As an undergraduate, I volunteered at an international mammalogy conference held at my university. At the conference I met Dr. Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist. I got the opportunity to work in his lab as a volunteer and later as a student technician.

He connected me with the Hawaiian monk seal research program at the NOAA Fisheries lab in Honolulu. That inspired me to pursue a Master’s degree in zoology, studying injuries in Hawaiian monk seals. I worked for the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu for a few years, studying population dynamics of Hawaiian monk seals. Then I moved to Seattle to work in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Mammal Laboratory. First I worked on Antarctic fur seals, and later on harbor seals and ice-associated seals in Alaska. Finally, I moved into education and outreach coordination.

Read the full release here

Climate Change Raises Risk of Prey Mismatch for Young Cod in Alaska

April 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

For a young Pacific cod, first feeding is a life-or-death moment. Cod larva are nourished by a yolk sac after they hatch. Once the yolk sac is depleted, they must find food within days in order to survive. If there is no prey available during that critical window for first feeding, young fish face starvation.

Warming Alaska waters are increasing the risk of prey mismatch and starvation for cod larvae, a new study finds.

NOAA Fisheries scientists collaborated with our partners to look at how temperature shifts affected first feeding Pacific cod larvae in two large ecosystems: the southeast Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The models made predictions for 1998–2019, a period that encompassed warm and cool years, including a series of extreme heatwave events beginning in 2014.

“Warming can increase the metabolic demands of fish and shift the timing of their food production. So you have temperature unravelling the system, moving food around. And you have fish needing food now. When mismatched prey timing and increased metabolic demand line up, it can be pretty disastrous,” said Ben Laurel, NOAA Fisheries scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, who led the study. “The better we can understand and predict these effects, the more effectively we can manage them now and in the future.”

Read the full release here

A Rising Tide Lifts All Fishers

April 1, 2021 — In the summer of 2013, a male captain was accused of raping and assaulting a female fisher multiple times during their week-long isolation in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

This horrific encounter points to a sobering problem for female fishers: the specter of sexual assault. Harassment and abuse aren’t necessarily more common in the fishing industry, but several factors make the situation on boats unique. For one thing, fishing involves spending weeks in a confined workplace, often in remote regions with no cellphone service. For another, many fishing vessels constitute their own small businesses, with no human resources department or codified policy that workers can turn to. And as with workers in other rural industries such as forestry and agriculture, who have fewer support systems to access than employees in urban areas, fishers tend to experience and grapple with abuse on their own.

That’s why Bristol Bay, Alaska, fisher Elma Burnham is asking her colleagues to sign a safety pledge that she created in 2017. To date, more than 500 captains, deckhands, processors, and tenders have signed the pledge, promising to uphold an understanding of consent and to work toward abolishing abuse in the industry; to intervene against harassment; to provide a safe place to work; and to pay, teach, and actively promote fishers who aren’t cisgender men.

Burnham grew up in an oystering family off Long Island Sound in Connecticut and now works as a Bristol Bay set-netter, fishing for sockeye salmon during the summer. She started developing her pledge after the 2016 US presidential election, which for her felt like a symbol of entrenched misogyny. She wanted to see what she could do on a local level, so she started Strength of the Tides, a group that brings female, transgender, and nonbinary fishers together to network, support one another, and ask for boat owners to sign the pledge. Although organizations like this are more common in commercial fishing, shipping, and other maritime sectors, says Burnham, they are rare to nonexistent in the world of small-scale fisheries.

Although Burnham says that she’s never faced harassment or abuse on the job, she knows “that’s not the case for everyone.”

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

Climate Change Raises Risk of Prey Mismatch for Young Cod in Alaska

March 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

For a young Pacific cod, first feeding is a life-or-death moment. Cod larva are nourished by a yolk sac after they hatch. Once the yolk sac is depleted, they must find food within days in order to survive. If there is no prey available during that critical window for first feeding, young fish face starvation.

Warming Alaska waters are increasing the risk of prey mismatch and starvation for cod larvae, a new study finds.

NOAA Fisheries scientists collaborated with our partners to look at how temperature shifts affected first feeding Pacific cod larvae in two large ecosystems: the southeast Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The models made predictions for 1998–2019, a period that encompassed warm and cool years, including a series of extreme heatwave events beginning in 2014.

“Warming can increase the metabolic demands of fish and shift the timing of their food production. So you have temperature unravelling the system, moving food around. And you have fish needing food now. When mismatched prey timing and increased metabolic demand line up, it can be pretty disastrous,” said Ben Laurel, NOAA Fisheries scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, who led the study. “The better we can understand and predict these effects, the more effectively we can manage them now and in the future.”

Read the full release here

Alaska Fisheries Science Center 2020 Year in Review

March 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center was able to accomplish a lot in FY 2020 despite the need to cancel some important field research and fish, crab and marine mammal surveys due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was a year of perseverance, creative thinking, and flexibility.

Our scientists took major steps to adjust the way we do business, protecting staff, communities and research partners while delivering critical science to support resource management and conservation efforts in FY20-21.

Some Highlights:

  • Set up makeshift, home-based labs to conduct critical process studies to provide age and diet information to inform fish and marine mammal stock assessments.
  • Employed innovative technologies to collect and more efficiently analyze data safely (e.g., sea going and aerial drones, artificial intelligence, remote camera and underwater acoustic monitoring systems, and sophisticated camera systems that simultaneously collect color, infrared, and ultraviolet images, etc.)
  • Substantially overhauled standard operating procedures to work with fisheries observer provider companies to deploy Federal fisheries observers on fishing vessels and in seafood processing facilities to collect needed data so fisheries could continue to operate and provide seafood to the nation and the world throughout the pandemic
  • Designed new modeling approaches to estimate fish and crab abundance to account for data limitations due to some cancelled surveys and research activities
  • Provided critical socio-economic analyses of COVID-related impacts on the commercial and recreational fishing industries
  • Increased collaboration with research, co-management and industry partners to monitor and collect data safely for bowhead whales, humpback whales, harbor seals, gray whales, Steller sea lions, northern fur seals, California sea lions, and commercially valuable pollock, red king crab and sablefish
  • Organized and safely supported a major ecosystem survey in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea during the pandemic
  • Completed a successful environmental DNA (eDNA) proof of concept in the inshore waters around Juneau, AK
  • Enlisted the help of state and academic scientists, Alaska Indigenous communities, private companies and others to collect ecosystem information and provide critical context for resource management decisions this year

Read the full release here

Water Clarity Study Sheds Light on Bering Sea Change

March 18, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In 2004, Alaska Fisheries Science Center biologists began attaching light sensors to Bering Sea survey bottom trawls to evaluate the effects of light on fish catchability. Fifteen years later, researchers looked at this unique dataset in a new light to reveal much more about the dynamic Bering Sea ecosystem.

NOAA Fisheries scientists collaborated with our partners to develop an automated process to translate these data into the first long time series of subsurface water clarity for the eastern Bering Sea.

“Until now, there was very little long term information on subsurface water clarity in the Bering Sea,”  said Sean Rohan, the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center biologist who led the study. “Working with the annual surveys provided unprecedented spatial coverage and resolution over a span of 15 years.”

Their approach provides a tool that expands possibilities for research in other regions. Their findings reveal patterns and trends in water clarity over depth and time that enhance our understanding of recent and future changes in the Bering Sea.

Read the full release here